Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Potential for diversification? The role of the formal sector in Bechuanaland Protectorate's economy, 1900-65 |
Authors: | Bolt, Jutta Hillbom, Ellen |
Year: | 2015 |
Periodical: | Economic history of developing regions (ISSN 2078-0397) |
Volume: | 30 |
Issue: | 2 |
Pages: | 95-124 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Botswana |
Subjects: | economic development agricultural history animal husbandry cattle colonial period |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.1080/20780389.2015.1066671 |
Abstract: | While Botswana since independence has experienced impressive economic growth and development this progress has not been accompanied by economic diversification and endogenous growth. In this article the authors focus on the colonial period and investigate to what extent the formal sector of Bechuanaland Protectorate (colonial Botswana) had the potential to constitute the basis for a diversification of the dominating cattle economy away from its dependency on exporting a single natural resource good - beef. The authors base their study on colonial archive sources and anthropological evidence which they use to: examine labour market structures; estimate welfare ratios and surplus; and discuss government spending. They find that the demand for skilled labour and human capital development was low throughout the colonial period and that the private sector generally lacked the economic strength and dynamics to develop alternative and/or complementary sectors. Further, they find no evidence of demand driven diversification, neither stemming from private sector consumption and investments, nor from government spending on economic activities outside the cattle sector, infrastructure and human capital development. App., bibliogr., sum. [Journal abstract] |